10. Dionysius seems to allow too little for the charming naïveté of Herodotus’ mental attitude, which is surely characteristic, whether or no Herodotus was the first to tell the story. Cp. D.H. p. 11 n. 1. The narrative which opens in Livy xxxix. c. 9 may be compared and contrasted.
18. The verse illustrations used on pp. 84, 86 are similarly treated by Hermogenes (Walz Rhett. Gr. iii. 230, 231; cp. p. 715 ibid.).
21. It seems better to read ἡρωϊκόν here (with PMV) rather than ἡρῷον (with F), as the form ἡρωϊκός is found consistently elsewhere ([86] 3, [88] 7, [172] 17, [206] 10).
Dionysius tends to regard the Homeric hexameter as the original and perfect metre, from which all others are inferior deflexions. Metres, after all, have their associations; the associations of the Homeric hexameter were eminently noble; and so even the choral odes of Aeschylus gain where the heroic line is most employed. So much, at any rate, may be conceded to Dionysius’ point of view, prone though he is to the kind of exaggeration which Tennyson (Life i. 469, 470) so effectively parodies.
πόδα βαινόμενον. ἐγὼ δὴ τῶν ὀνομάτων τούτων μετακινήσας
τὴν σύνθεσιν τοὺς αὐτοὺς στίχους ἀντὶ μὲν ἑξαμέτρων ποιήσω
τετραμέτρους, ἀντὶ δὲ ἡρωϊκῶν προσοδιακοὺς τὸν τρόπον
τοῦτον·
ἀλλ’ ἔχεν ὥστε γυνὴ χερνῆτις τάλαντ’ ἀληθής, 5
ἥ τ’ εἴριον ἀμφὶς καὶ σταθμὸν ἔχουσ’ ἀνέλκει
ἰσάζουσ’, ἵν’ ἀεικέα παισὶν ἄροιτο μισθόν.
τοιαῦτά ἐστι τὰ πριάπεια, ὑπό τινων δ’ ἰθυφάλλια λεγόμενα,
ταυτί·
οὐ βέβηλος, ὦ τελέται τοῦ νέου Διονύσου, 10
κἀγὼ δ’ ἐξ εὐεργεσίης ὠργιασμένος ἥκω.